YOJ 2005 Week 32

The theme for this week is "Freedom" and I'm a little late posting.

I have finally been able to overcome an obstacle I wanted to for a very long time: I used a cabochon instead of a bead to make this ring. That is, the stone has no holes, it is secured only by the wire elements (and of course, a little silver lizard cooperated too).

Although this seems to be an easy task for most experienced wire workers, I needed to find a way to set a stone using my own style, and until now, it had escaped me. I'm so excited -- now I can use cabs!

Freedom ring: aventurine cabochon set in sterling silver wire with sterling silver lizard. Size 7. The cab measures 3/4" by 1/2".

YOJ 2005 Week 31

The theme for this week is "Calligraphy", and following tradition, I created something that has nothing to do with it! I've been experimenting with a slightly different technique of gathering clusters of beads together, as seen also in week 29. This time, I combined some great teal-green tourmaline beads which I have been dying to play with.

The pendant is not small -- it measures 2 inches high, including the bail. Notice the invariable critter crawling on the pendant, this time a little sea turtle. What I liked about this piece is that it is quite substantial, that is, it feels pretty heavy.

YOJ 2005 Week 30

The theme for this week is "Found Objects", so here's an interesting story: I was in a bit of a rut for the last few days -- working on taxes and not really inspired, it seemed like all jewelry projects weren't really working. I started three different pendants and left them aside incomplete. So yesterday I decided to just take the day off and do something totally different, with no pressure.

Suddenly out of nowhere, I found myself creating finger rings. I have never really explored that type of jewelry much, so I was surprised my muse would take me in that direction. I created three different rings, one shown here. I can safely say that this is a "Found Object", since I have no idea where it came from... :-)

Found Treasure Amethyst ring

The center stone is an AAA gemstone-quality amethyst, surrounded by silver wire heavily coiled and silver beads. Notice the little snail (bottom image). The bezeled stone measures 1/2" wide and the ring is size 5 (a pinky ring).

As with all my pieces, there is no solder or glue used in this piece.

YOJ 2005 Week 29

Back in weeks 15 and 18, I created some organic marine pendants for commissions. I have been aching since then to try creating some organic pendants in the same style, with more detail, but never seemed to have the time. This new Marine Relic Pendant is an attempt to continue that work.

The pendant measures only 1.5" high, so the picture shown here is probably larger than real size. I combined small clouded aquamarine nuggets, hilltribe silver beads and a silver starfish.

YOJ 2005 Week 28

I recently received a request to create a 'Y' necklace matching the marine bangle Sharks and Dolphins, Friends and Enemies. This is the result:

The nuggets are clouded aquamarines and the faceted gems are unusual faceted AAA light blue topaz. All coiled with hair-thin 28 ga wire, of course!